fairies

Two the ocean races that of one blood remain;
A single skin encases the slayers and the slain,
But blood will blood deliver, though later comes the fee,
As every rushing river runs to one salt sea.

“One Salt Sea” by Cat Faber, inspired by the book of the same title in Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series. If you’re not familiar with the series the lyrics will sound kinda cryptic, but they’re cool enough that it’s still worth a listen.

In celebration, have some filkers performing everyone’s favorite traditional ballad about getting knocked up by a weird guy in the woods and having to go rescue him on Halloween before the Faerie can sacrifice him to the Devil 🙂

Because this post is getting attention again, I would like to append something wonderful that I recently learned. The musician you hear here is trans and now goes by the name of Alexander James Adams. Because of his obsession with fairies n’ shit, he steadfastly maintains the kayfabe story that his previous self, Heather, was a changeling and he, Alexander, was the child she replaced, but won the right to return from fairyland in a “Devil Went Down to Georgia” style fiddle duel with the faerie queen. This is a song he wrote that tells the whole story.